Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson (21 May 1934 – 5 July 2024) was a Swedish

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

. He shared with Sune K. Bergström and John R. Vane the 1982

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning

prostaglandin Prostaglandins (PG) are a group of physiology, physiologically active lipid compounds called eicosanoids that have diverse hormone-like effects in animals. Prostaglandins have been found in almost every Tissue (biology), tissue in humans and ot ...

s and related substances.

Education and early life

Samuelsson was born in

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

in southwest Sweden, studied at

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

, and was a professor in medical and physiological chemistry at

Karolinska Institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; ; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden and one of the foremost medical research institutes globally ...

in Stockholm in 1973. He was president of

from 1982 to 1995 and chairman of the

Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation () is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. It also holds Nobel Sym ...

from 1993 to 2005.

Research and career

Discussing the role of

s in the body, Samuelsson explained, "It's a control system for the cells that participates in many biological functions. There are endless possibilities of manipulating this system in drug development." His research interests were originally in

cholesterol Cholesterol is the principal sterol of all higher animals, distributed in body Tissue (biology), tissues, especially the brain and spinal cord, and in Animal fat, animal fats and oils. Cholesterol is biosynthesis, biosynthesized by all anima ...

metabolism with importance to reaction mechanisms. Following the structural work on prostaglandins along with Sune Bergström he was interested mainly in the transformation products of

arachidonic acid Arachidonic acid (AA, sometimes ARA) is a polyunsaturated omega−6 fatty acid 20:4(ω−6), or 20:4(5,8,11,14). It is a precursor in the formation of leukotrienes, prostaglandins, and thromboxanes. Together with omega−3 fatty acids an ...

. This has led to the identification of endoperoxides,

thromboxane Thromboxane is a member of the family of lipids known as eicosanoids. The two major thromboxanes are thromboxane A2 and thromboxane B2. The distinguishing feature of thromboxanes is a 6-membered ether-containing ring. Thromboxane is named for ...

s and the

leukotriene Leukotrienes are a family of eicosanoid inflammation, inflammatory mediators produced in leukocytes by the redox, oxidation of arachidonic acid (AA) and the essential fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) by the enzyme arachidonate 5-lipoxyg ...

s, and his group has chiefly been involved in studying the

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

of these compounds and their function in biological control systems. This research has implications in numerous clinical areas, especially in

thrombosis Thrombosis () is the formation of a Thrombus, blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thrombocytes) and fib ...

inflammation Inflammation (from ) is part of the biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. The five cardinal signs are heat, pain, redness, swelling, and loss of function (Latin ''calor'', '' ...

, and

allergy Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include Allergic rhinitis, hay fever, Food allergy, food al ...

. This field has grown enormously since those days. Between 1981 and 1995, about 3,000 papers per year were published that specifically used the expression "prostaglandins," or related terms such as "prostacyclins," "leukotrienes," and "thromboxanes," in their labels and titles. Samuelsson had served as a director on the boards of

Pharmacia Pharmacia was a pharmaceutical and biotechnological company in Sweden that merged with the American pharmaceutical company Upjohn in 1995. History Pharmacia company was founded in 1911 in Stockholm, Sweden by pharmacist Gustav Felix Grönfel ...

AB, NicOx SA, and Schering AG, and was an advisor to the venture capital fund

HealthCap HealthCap is a specialized provider of venture capital within life sciences. HealthCap invests in innovative companies with focus on therapeutics. As of 2023, HealthCap has invested in over 125 companies since inception and completed initial public ...

Death

Samuelsson died on 5 July 2024, at the age of 90.

Awards and honours

In 1975, Samuelsson was awarded the

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemist ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

together with Sune K. Bergström. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1990.

References

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture ''From Studies of Biochemical Mechanisms to Novel Biological Mediators: Prostaglandin Endoperoxides, Thromboxanes and Leukotrienes'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuelsson, Bengt I. 1934 births 2024 deaths Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Swedish biochemists Stockholm University alumni Academic staff of the Karolinska Institute Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Swedish Nobel laureates Foreign members of the Royal Society People from Halmstad Members of the French Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Members of the National Academy of Medicine Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences